The Current
LETTER: Give charter schools fair shot at buildings
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
I have followed your coverage of the city’s bizarre process for selling off unused buildings, including your Oct. 7 editorial about the former Stevens Elementary School, and would like to weigh in myself.
I am a parent of one of the 25,000 students who attend public charter schools in D.C., and I find the mayor’s actions on surplus city property to be very disturbing.
My son’s school spent precious resources applying unsuccessfully for one city property after another in what appears to be a rigged process. The city announces a “competition” for an empty school building and gives charter schools the chance to apply. They then declare all the charter applications nonviable on the flimsiest basis with no opportunity for applicants to address concerns or deficiencies in their applications.
I understand that the mayor’s future rests on the success of the D.C. Public Schools, which has lost enrollment at the expense of D.C. charter schools. I wish him and D.C. Public Schools great suc- cess.
I would like to see all schools improve and not try to gain ground at the expense of others. However, if the mayor cannot build more transparency into the bidding process and give schools a fair chance at school buildings, we have to wonder whether he feels the same way.
Steven Glazerman
Shaw